Lines to a Lady, on Hearing Her Sing "Cushlamachree"
Yes! heaven protect thee, thou gem of the ocean;Dear land of my sires, though distant thy shores;Ere my heart cease to love thee, its latest emotion,The last dying throbs of its pulse must be o'er.
And dark were the bosom, and cold and unfeeling,That tamely could listen unmoved at the call,When woman, the warm soul of melody stealing,Laments for her country and sighs o'er its fall.
Sing on, gentle warbler, the tear-drop appearingShall fall for the woes of the queen of the sea;And the spirit that breathes in the harp of green Erin,Descending, shall hail thee her "Cushlamachree."
Words in this poem
- tamely adv.
- In a tame manner.
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- erin n.
- An early, and now a poetic, name of Ireland. [Ir. Cf. Aryan.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines to a Lady, on Hearing Her Sing "Cushlamachree" is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Culprit Fay, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #317; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Joseph Rodman Drake, Lines to a Lady, on Hearing Her Sing "Cushlamachree", in The Culprit Fay and Other Poems (1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #317, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drake-culprit-fay/lines-to-a-lady-on-hearing-her-sing-cushlamachree.html, id L10281.
Form and metre
Lines to a Lady, on Hearing Her Sing "Cushlamachree" is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.3 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-A- oceanA · shores · emotionA · o'er
- 2 ABAB unfeelingA · callB · stealingA · fallB
- 3 -A-A appearing · seaA · erin · cushlamachreeA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Yes! heaven protect thee, thou gem of the ocean; | 11 | ·/˘/·····/˘ |
| Dear land of my sires, though distant thy shores; | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Ere my heart cease to love thee, its latest emotion, | 13 | ········/˘/˘˘ |
| The last dying throbs of its pulse must be o'er. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| And dark were the bosom, and cold and unfeeling, | 12 | ····/˘···˘/˘ |
| That tamely could listen unmoved at the call, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘/··· |
| When woman, the warm soul of melody stealing, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Laments for her country and sighs o'er its fall. | 11 | ˘/··/˘····· |
| Sing on, gentle warbler, the tear-drop appearing | 12 | ··/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| Shall fall for the woes of the queen of the sea; | 11 | ··········· |
| And the spirit that breathes in the harp of green Erin, | 12 | ··/·······/˘ |
| Descending, shall hail thee her "Cushlamachree." | 11 | ˘/˘········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.